The challenges of implementing EQUELLA: It’s not just about the technology Emily Bond Senior Business Analyst, Better Learning and Teaching team 3 September 2013

3rd September Today  History of EQUELLA at Monash University  Why EQUELLA?  Implementation approach  Challenges faced to-date  Initial lessons learnt  Challenges and opportunities moving forward

 Largest university in Australia 3rd September A bit about Monash University 62,998 students 7,720 academic staff Australia Malaysia South Africa China India Italy

3rd September EQUELLA at Monash University  Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences (MNHS) and the Library MBBS Physiotherapy Nutrition & Dietetics Sharing content Sharing content Accreditation purposes Repository Library

3rd September EQUELLA at Monash University Centralised management and control of resources 1. Academic staff2. Content administrators 3. Staff & students

3rd September Why EQUELLA… ?  File management  Home for learning objects  Single source of truth  Integration with Moodle

3rd September Implementation approach Proof of Concept Pilot Enterprise- wide roll out 2 faculties 10 faculty staff members 9 faculties 30 faculty staff members All 10 faculties All staff Feedback and lessons learnt Feedback and lessons learnt Dec May 2013 July - Sept 2013 Jan 2014

3rd September Implementation approach (cont)  Contribution wizard design  Honest communication  Variety of training and support

3rd September Challenges encountered with implementation  High expectations  Culture  EQUELLA interface  Time and effort  Diverse user group  Alternative technologies  ‘Chicken or the egg’

3rd September Lessons learnt 1. Technology 2. Training3. Timing

3rd September Key messages  The value of honest communication  Appropriate and targeted key messages What we said initially… "EQUELLA is the alternative to Moodle for content management” “Use EQUELLA as the canonical source of all electronic artefacts utilised in learning and teaching activities” “Metadata useful for describing the content you have uploaded” “Here is a list of all of the things you need to be wary of when using EQUELLA (ie. copyright protection, version control, etc.)” Message moving forward… "EQUELLA as a complementary content management tool” “Use EQUELLA to store and share bigger, more static files such as videos, images and software which are more likely to be useful across courses/ units” “Enter metadata that you believe will be useful for your peers when they are searching for a particular resource” “There are a number of things you need to be mindful of when using EQUELLA - here is a link to some help topics that explain these things (read them in your own time)” “We understand that to be useful, EQUELLA needs to have sufficient content to search through and use. We expect that the usefulness of EQUELLA will increase over time - the more content that is added to EQUELLA, the more useful it will be”

2. Relevance and usefulness 4. Single EQUELLA institution 3rd September Challenges moving forward… 1. ‘Drag and drop’ in Moodle 3. Copyright and IP

 Reduced duplication/ rework  Increased innovation 3rd September … And the opportunities  Break down of silos  Culture of sharing

3rd September What next? 1.Complete EQUELLA pilot 2.Collect and analyse feedback 3.Update technology, training, communications and support 4.Enterprise-wide roll out

3rd September Questions?

3rd September References Binary Data, W. Rebel, accessed 31 July, 2013, Overflowing folder, Heidi Bakes, accessed 31 July, 2013 Consolidated/Convair Aircraft Factory San Diego Equipment, San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, accessed 6 August 2013, Training, San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive, accessed 6 August 2013, World map more detail, Shokunin, accessed 7 August 2013, Milkshake anyone?, JohnnyMrNinja, accessed 7 August 2013,